The new issue of Counterpunch magazine reports that, according to a
Pentagon procurement auditor, many of America's air-launched Cruise
missiles have embedded chips subject to potential Y2K guidance problems.

Conveniently, however, over 200 have been fired into Yugoslavia, and
another 90 have dropped into Iraq.

End of problem.

(Counterpunch is online at
http://www.counterpunch.org,
although unfortunately the website often lags the print edition
by a couple of weeks.)

Counterpunch also notes that the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) war crimes
verification team, which in January with great
fanfare accused the Serbs of committing massacres of Albanian peasants,
was led by none other than William Walker, former U.S. Ambassor to El
Salvador in the late 1980s.

Good God. Something is really wrong here. A little history:

When the U.S.-backed Salvadoran High Command used paramilitary forces to
kill civilian opponents, Walker was notorious for looking the other way.

In 1989, when Salvadoran soldiers massacred six Jesuit priests, their
housekeeper, and her daughter, this was Ambassador Walker's response:

"Management control problems can exist in these kinds of situations."

Then again, that's pretty much exactly what
NATO says about their civilian casualties ...

So let's ask: as to natural resources, is there anything worth fighting
over in Kosovo?

Yup.

In the heart of Kosovo, just a short drive from the capital of Pristina,
lies Yugoslavia's state-owned Trepca mining complex, called by the New
York Times (July 8, 1998) "a war's glittering prize... the most valuable
piece of real estate in the Balkans... worth at least $5 billion" thanks
to its rich deposits of lead, zinc, cadmium, gold, and silver.

To put that number in perspective,
only 58 billion tons of coal have been
mined in the U.S. -- [ever]. At current consumption rates, 17 billion
tons of coal would be roughly as much as the United States uses in 20
years.

How much is that 17 billion tons of coal worth?
I'm suddenly damn curious.

Last October [1998], Atlantic-Richfield paid the U.S.
government 38 cents a ton for an undeveloped lode
in Wyoming. That number might be a low measure of
actual value, since the government notoriously gives natural resource
companies in many industries favorable, below-market terms.
I'll do more research and follow up on this in coming weeks.

Data on the extent of Trepca's current coal production is hard to find,
but if the coal mines are already operational, development costs
would be substantially lower.

In addition, U.S. Bureau of Mines data indicates
that payroll and taxes account for a third of mining costs in the U.S.
Since those costs would be much lower in what Wall Street calls an
"emerging market," the value of the coal in Trepca would be boosted by,
conservatively, another twenty percent.

At a very rough guess of 60 cents per ton, the coal mines would be worth
about ten billion dollars. Which means that the Trepca mining complex,
alone, is worth, conservatively, fifteen billion dollars.

And even that number might be way low.

The Bureau of Mines estimate I found pegs the nominal cost per ton of
underground mining at a little under 30 dollars. In the real world, the
figure seems to come in at roughly 25 bucks. Again, discounting tax and
labor costs in eastern Europe, the cost of production would probably be
even lower. Instead, however, let's play it conservative and call the
cost of production a full $30 per ton.

The sale price for a ton of coal seems to vary widely, according to its
composition and market conditions, but over the last few years, a rough
average for the going rate seems to be about $36 a ton.

Which means this: unless I've screwed up somewhere here, and God knows
that's possible, there's over $100 billion sitting in a hole in the
ground in Kosovo. Not even counting other, smaller operations in
the region.

Whoa.

(Until somebody else who knows a lot more about mining runs all these
numbers, I'll hold off on drawing any conclusions. If I've made a
mistake, please email me at bob@bobharris.com and I'll eagerly publish
more accurate figures.)

In any case, the question does present itself:

Is it possible that what oil was to the Gulf War,
coal and precious metals are to Kosovo?

Notably, while NATO has bombed machine plants, pharmaceutical factories,
television stations, airports, electrical stations, bridges, tobacco
factories, prisons, car factories, textile plants, wood mills,
and even a shock absorber manufacturer, there is no report
I can find that the Trepca facility has suffered even a scratch.

Meanwhile, American media has been almost completely silent about the
Trepca mines, or any of Kosovo's natural resources, for that matter.
The Trepca complex hasn't been mentioned in the Washington Post
even once ...

In the weeks before the bombings began, NATO presented both the KLA and
the Milosevic government a proposed accord which has come to be called
the Rambouillet (pronounced, weirdly enough, like "Rambo-yay")
agreement ...

I've placed the full agreement at http://www.bobharris.com,
along with a convenient copy of Appendix B, which contains
most of the stuff Belgrade rejected. Judge for yourself ...

So what's in this Rambouillet deal, anyway? Here's the Cliffs Notes
version:

The agreement begins with a group hug preamble and a "Framework" which
elaborates the need for everybody to stop shooting and play nice. The
right noises are all made. Cool so far.

From there, the main body of the agreement begins with essentially a
shopping list of political goals that have never been in serious
dispute, to wit:

Chapter 1 is a constitution for Kosovo.

Chapter 2 is about civilian law enforcement and criminal justice.

Chapter 3 is about holding elections.

All is still good. But then things get interesting.

Chapter 4, on economic issues,
starts out with this blunt assertion as its
very first sentence: "The economy of Kosovo shall function in accordance
with free market principles."

Whuh?

That's nice and all, but why does NATO need to specify the Kosovar
economic system, of all things, so early in the agreement, if their only
interest is in returning refugees to their homes?

There hasn't been a single word yet about the transport of displaced
persons, expediting of food, clothing, medicine, and other assistance,
finding of the missing, economic reconstruction, adjudication of war
crimes claims, or any of the other stuff the U.S. and
NATO claim to be so concerned with. Just this:
"The economy of Kosovo shall function in
accordance with free market principles."

That means stuff like the Trepca mines and other mineral resources in
Kosovo will inevitably be privatized while under NATO control. And the
wealthy investors who front the cash and make the profits won't be
coming from anywhere in Yugoslavia.

Article 2 confirms the point. Section 1:
"The Parties agree to reallocate
ownership and resources in accordance insofar as possible with the
distribution of powers and responsibilities set forth in this Agreement,
in the following areas:

Couple that with Section 2:
"The Parties agree to the creation of a Claim
Settlement Commission (CSC) to resolve all disputes...

(a) The CSC shall
consist of three experts designated by Kosovo, three experts designated
jointly by the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Republic of
Serbia, and three independent experts designated by the CIM."

Aha. The Kosovo protectorate government and its
NATO protectors receive 6 out of 9 votes over control of
Kosovo's resources.

Hmm. Maybe there really are a hundred billion reasons for the West to
care about Kosovo.

Still not a single word yet about all those hungry Albanians ...

Tomorrow, Monday the 31st, is Memorial Day [5-31-99].

We're supposed to remember America's veterans.

OK. And let's do it right. Let's remember the ones who need us most.

Vietnam veterans account for 35% of America's homeless population. The
National Coalition for Homeless Veterans in Washington estimates that
over 270,000 Vietnam veterans are homeless. Roughly three-quarters are
suffering from mental health problems, drug addictions, or both.

Meanwhile, over 100,000 Desert Storm veterans, in addition to many of
their spouses and children, have registered with the VA or Defense
Department with symptoms of Gulf War Syndrome. And 1995 survey by the
VFW found that only about half of veterans who were ill had registered,
so the actual number afflicted is surely much higher. Including
family members, well over a quarter of a million Americans are likely
affected ...''

-----------------

"Date: 8 Aug 1999
From: "The Scoop"

The Scoop - http://www.bobharris.com/

... NATO leaders would have
us believe that the thousands of NATO bombing
runs, targeting everything from military bases to civilian bridges to
columns of Albanian refugees, were the primary cause of Serbia's
withdrawal from Kosovo.

Nope.

Instead, NATO's own experts privately conclude that the NATO bombing
campaign "failed to damage the Yugoslav army," that Belgrade's 47,000
troops withdrew with their equipment virtually intact, and that the war
ended for another reason entirely: because Russia withdrew their
diplomatic support for the Belgrade regime and pressed
Serbia to sign the Chernomyrdin/Ahtisaari accord ...

Worse, as the journal Counterpunch (http://www.counterpunch.org) points
out, NATO's experts draw from this experience an unexpected lesson: that
next time, since it's so hard to hit military targets, the bombing
strategy should include even more civilian targets ...

The August 8th Los Angeles Times (http://www.latimes.com) lists a
chronology of major Serbian actions against Albanian Kosovars.
The very first was apparently a "rampage" through the town of
Kosovska Mitrovica -- where ultimately 650 people were killed --
beginning just three hours after the first NATO bombing.

The Times doesn't mention it,
but Kosovska Mitrovica is the town where the
workers at the Trepca mine live.

This space has long noted numerous little-noted reports from mainstream
sources indicating that the KLA originally coalesced as the result of a
strike in the massive mining complex,
and that control over the mines was
once a key strategic concern.

And now it turns out that's the very first place Serbian paramilitaries
attacked ...

Bob Harris is a stand-up comedian, political writer,
and syndicated radio humorist.
His new book, Steal This Book And Get Life Without Parole, is
now available from www.commoncouragepress.com.

OTTAWA -- Canada should be wary of recognizing Kosovo as an
independent nation given the existence of the sovereigntist
movement in Quebec, former Liberal prime minister Jean
Chretien warned Friday ...

Chretien's comments come as Canada grapples with
the thorny question of whether to recognize Kosovo's
decision Sunday to separate from Serbia on the basis of
a unilateral declaration of independence. While Canadian
decision-makers have remained remarkably silent, leaders
of Quebec's sovereigntist movement immediately hailed
Kosovo's independence.

Several countries including the United States, the United
Kingdom, France, Germany and Australia have moved quickly
to recognize Kosovo but several other countries, like
Russia and Spain, have refused to recognize it.

Chretien, who had to make similar decisions during his
decade as prime minister, pointed to several nations that
should be careful about recognizing Kosovo's unilateral
declaration of independence ...

"If you start (looking) around, we have this problem but
the French have this problem with Corsica (and) the Basque
part of France. The same thing with the Spaniards who have
refused to recognize them. The Scots could leave Great
Britain any day, I'm told, let alone Wales. You have the
problem in Belgium. Mr. Putin (in Russia) has a problem
with states that would like to go." ...''

Separatists in Indian Kashmir said Kosovo's unilateral
declaration of independence has bolstered their resolve
to achieve the same status for the disputed Himalayan
territory ...

India is wary of recognising Kosovo as an independent
state because of its potential implications for Kashmir,
racked by a nearly two-decade revolt against New Delhi's
rule that has left more than 43,000 people dead.

Nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan, which have fought
two wars for control of the Muslim-majority region, each
hold part of the territory but claim it in full ...''

``Bosnian Serb lawmakers have backed a resolution calling
Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia illegal
and threatening to call a referendum on their own possible
separation from the amalgamated state of Bosnia-Herzegovina
...

Serbs in northern Kosovo, meanwhile, have been preventing
Albanians from crossing the Ibar River into the Serbian
part of the divided town of Mitrovica, potentially setting
the stage for their own separation from the new entity
...''

By pledging his support of Kosovo's declaration of
independence from Serbia, President George W. Bush has
sanctioned the genocide of thousands of Serbian Christians
in the Balkans and the creation, thanks to al Qaeda,
of a radical Muslim state at the doorway to Europe ...

Kosovo had formally remained a part of Serbia even though
it has been administered by the United Nations and NATO
since 1999, when strategic NATO bombings ended the Serbian
crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists ...

Former UN Ambassador John Bolton maintains that the
creation of an independent Kosovo "will give a boost to
Islam extremism." Bolton voices his agreement with Alekandr
Botsan-Kharcenko, Russia's ambassador to the Balkans,
who said: "Any unilateral declaration of independence by
Pristina [capital of the new nation] would not be legal
and could trigger separatist movements in the world ...

The turmoil in Kosovo began in 1989 ... To aid in the
struggle for independence, the ethnic Albanians turned to
Osama bin Laden and the mujahadeen. Muslim warriors from
Chechnya, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia traveled in droves to
Kosovo. By 1995, more than sixty thousand holy warriors,
including members of al Qaeda, had made their way to the
Balkans to prepare for the struggle against Milosevic and
the Christian Serbs.

Bin Laden visited the area three times between 1994 and
1996. In the wake of these visits, al Qaeda training camps
popped up in Zenica in Bosnia and Malisevo and Mitrovica
in Kosovo; elaborate command and control centers were
set up in Croatia, Macedonia, and Bulgaria; and a central
headquarters for the mujahadeen was established in Tropje,
Albania ... In addition, Bin Laden provided seven hundred
million dollars to establish the Kosovo Liberation Army
(KLA) ...

By 1997, President Bill Clinton, Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright, and Secretary of Defense William Cohen
came to view the KLA as 'freedom fighters.' Millions in
U.S. aid began to flow to the Muslim rebels. America,
unbeknown to its citizens, was now in league with the
terrorists ...

Between March 24 and June 10, 1999, 37,465 bombing missions
took place, destroying 400 Serbian artillery weapons and
270 armored personnel carriers, and causing 1.4 ethnic
Albanians to flee for their lives - - the greatest mass
migration of refugees since World War II.

Milosevic and the Serbs were forced to toss in the
towel. The accord of June 21, 1999 ended the air strikes,
eliminated the presence of a Serbian government in Kosovo,
and authorized a NATO force of 1,700 police officers to
establish law and order until democratic elections could
be held ...

The ethnic Albanians who had fled for safety from the Serbs
now returned with a vengeance. A pogrom got underway in the
Balkans, and neither Bill Clinton nor the United Nations
uttered a word of protest.

The Muslims wasted no time in exacting their pounds
of flesh. More than two hundred Christian churches and
monasteries were destroyed before the NATO peace-keeping
force. Some of these Christian shrines, including the
Devic Monastery, the Cathedral of St. George, and the
Monastery of the Holy Archangels, had been built in the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Reports surfaced of
mass executions of Serbian farmers, the murders of scores
of priests, the rape of nuns, and 'granny killings' - -
the drowning of old Christian women in bathtubs.

Of the two hundred thousand Serbs who lived in Kosovo
before the conflict, only four hundred remained after
Kosovo became a NATO protectorate. The vast majority of
the Christians had gathered their belongings and fled for
their lives ...

In the aftermath of the war, hundreds of Wahhabi mosques
and schools, thanks to the contributions of wealthy Saudis,
now appeared in every town and hamlet throughout the
country. The back-door to Europe had been pried open by
bin Laden and the mujahadeen for the drug trade and the
movement of weapons of mass destruction ...

The real genocide in Kosovo, i. e., the killing of
Christian Serbs, continued under the collective noses
of the George W. Bush Administration. In March 2004,
the ethnic Albanians, in a last ditch effort to eradicate
the remaining Serbs, torched Serbian homes and destroyed
almost all of the remaining Serbian Orthodox Church sites,
and even the UN facilities. But no protest came from the
White House.

Instead, President Bush visited Albania on June 11,
2007 and declared: "At some point, sooner rather than
later, you've got to say, Enough is enough - - Kosovo
is independent."

On February 17, 2008, enough became enough. Kosovo declared
its independence and the mujahadeen dream of the Islamic
Republic of Greater Albania began to crystallize into a
reality ...''

FBI whistle-blower Sibel Edmonds told the London Sunday
Times in January, 2008 that a court order muzzling her
protects people who sold nuclear secrets ... A Justice
counter-intelligence unit had been investigating the
network since 1996. The document states that the Turks
had been warned that Brewster Jennings was a CIA front
working to stem nuclear proliferation.

Edmonds learned through translating tapes that a senior
State Department official and senior Pentagon people were
selling information to the Turks and others. The State
Department official was useful in obtaining the release
of four foreign operatives who had been rounded up after
9/11 ...

It appears that the cases of Sibel Edmonds and Valerie
Plame are linked. Plame was in hot pursuit of the same
network. Wayne Madsen, an investigative reporter, was the
first to see the connection between the Edmonds and Plame
cases. He wrote that Plame's Brewster Jennings operation
had intercepted a nuclear materials shipment that was
supposed to have been planted in Iraq to make the case
for weapons of mass destruction there.

Madsen traces the corrupt tie to Turkey and other Islamic
countries far beyond 1996 and, like The Times, links
it to the Pakistani bomb. Richard Barlow, head of the
Counter-Proliferation Division, was fired in 1989, when he
found evidence that the George H.W. Bush administration
was helping the A.Q. Khan nuclear manufacturing program
in Pakistan.

Stephen Hadley, then an assistant to Secretary of Defense
Richard Cheney, led the effort to fire Barlow. Today,
the Swiss Federal Prosecutor's Office has been complaining
that the administration of George W. Bush will not assist
it in its investigation of AQ Khan.

The Scooter Libby case is interesting because 'Turkey' kept
turning up in documents that were released. When Cheney
aids and Rove discussed Plame, their discussion evolved
into a discussion of Russian mogul Mikhail Khodorkovsky, A
Q Khan and the Turks ... Libby was found guilty of lying,
and President Bush subsequently commuted Libby's sentence.

Sibel Edmonds, then 32, was employed by the FBI after
9/11 to translate intercepts of conversations in Turkish
and Farsi. She was employed as a language specialist for
the FBI's Washington Field Office. During her work with
the bureau, she discovered and reported serious acts of
security breaches, cover-ups, and intentional blocking of
intelligence that had national security implications. She
repeatedly claimed that the government had enough
information to enable it to foil the 9/11 plot.

Specifically, she said the FBI had information that
terrorists planned to fly planes into the World Trade
Center. She also believed the evidence she saw meant
that narcotics money was going to both Al Qaeda and US
politicians. Three weeks after she testified before the
Senate Judiciary Committee, she was terminated ...

She also claimed that Al Qaeda was 95% financed by drugs,
but the 9/11 Commission went out of its way to write
"there is no reliable evidence that Bin Laden was involved
in or made his money through drug trafficking." This drug
trade goes back to the CIA's long-time involvement with
Pakistan's ISI and the BCCI. It grew greatly during the
effort to oust the Soviets from Afghanistan.

If today, the CIA, the Taliban, and Al Qaeda are all
involved in the Afghan drug trade, it would not be
surprising if they had some common business relationships
or, at the least, were all dealing with the same major
Afghan drug lords ...

At the heart of [Sibel Edmonds] problems were her claims
that Turkish money was making its way to US politicians
and that the Turks and others were involved in the drug
and illicit arms trade. She has repeatedly claimed that
she was gagged because she knew criminally obtained money
was reaching people in high places in the United States
government.

In 1997, British Home Secretary Tom Sackville angered his
government by openly stating that Turkey was neck-deep
in the international drug trade. He was correct in point
of fact, but Turkey is an important western ally, and it
would be disconcerting to take the next step and suggest
that the US and UK simply look the other way, even when
some of this drug money ends up in the coffers of Al Qaeda.

About $40 billion worth of heroin and illegal drugs
pass through Turkey each year; most of it going to
Europe. Turkey receives, processes, and ships heroin from
a Golden Triangle, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran ...
For some reason, the people on Vice President Cheney's
staff, who were busy discrediting CIA agent Valerie Plame
and her husband Ambassador Joseph Wilson, had close ties
to Turkey ...''

As we ponder how to confront the newly-created but
phony terrorist Islamic Republic of Kosovo's illegal
independence, we must first understand exactly why this
is such a ridiculous action.

Some of the first tests for nationhood include:

1. treatment of minorities and respect for law and meting
ofjustice,

2. respect for the property of citizens,

3. economic viability,

4. UN recognition and finally,

5. can the nation defend itself?

On all accounts, Kosovo fails miserably.

Regarding the first test: for the past 60 years,
Kosovo's non-Albanian residents have suffered horribly
from extremist Albanians with thousands slaughtered,
hundreds of thousands ethnically-cleansed, and over 150
Serbian Orthodox Churches and Monasteries destroyed.

NATO, the self-proclaimed "peacekeeper" of the Serbian
province has done next to nothing to prevent the
"Krystal nacht" endured by Serbs, Gypsies, and other
non-Albanians. The current leaders of Kosovo are war
criminals sought by Serbia and Islamic terrorists supported
by Osama Bin Laden and other extremists are flourishing
there with no fear of justice.

Regarding test 2: The Serbian Orthodox Church owns much
of the land upon which Kosovo is situated. Thus far,
there have been no success in efforts to return this land
to its rightful owner. Thousands of Kosovo Serbian homes
have been torched with next to zero chance that the Serbs
will ever return.

Considering test 3: Kosovo has a roughly 50% unemployment
rate with the highest birthrate in Europe and a thriving
economy based on drug running, terrorist-training, and
the sex-slave trade.

For test 4, the UN will never recognize Kosovo as Russia
realizes that the primary reasons to steal Kosovo from
Serbia pertain to maintaining an indefinite NATO military
presence in the Serbian province (Camp Bondsteel)
to act against a resurgent Russia. A popular saying
among many Eastern Europeans is: "Today Serbia, tomorrow
Russia." Given the shameful and dishonorable way that the
West has behaved since it illegally destroyed the former
Yugoslavia, Russians should be very concerned. You can't
appease evil.

Finally, for test 5, the Kosovo Liberation Army never
succeeded against the Serbian army except when it has
NATO as it's airforce mercilessly bombing civilians in
1999 in NATO's vicious and illegal war against the Serbian
people. Kosovo will never survive as an independent state
without a foreign army protecting it ...

The US and the EU are creating a very dangerous precedent
by illegally creating a "Greater Albania" that will
irreversibly damage relations with Russia and encourage
some 200 separatist movements the worldover. The US
has lost the "moral" authority to act as self-appointed
"policeman" of the world. Just as the Nazi occupation of
the Sudentenland from Czechoslovakia was the precursor to
WWII, the Western theft of Kosovo may provoke WWIII. It's
time for Russia to draw a line in the sand.''

ARTICLE from The Israel News, 1-31-08,
By Professor Michel Chossudovsky,

[Part 1]

``The following text was first published in Italian in:
Giuletto Chiesa (Editor), Perché la versione ufficiale
sull' 11/9 è un Falso: Why the Official Version on 9/11
is a Falsehood], Piemme, Casale Monferrato, 2007.

A detailed analysis of the relevant issues covered in this
article is also contained in the author's book America's
"War on Terrorism", Global Research, 2005

Introduction

One of the main objectives of war propaganda is to
"fabricate an enemy". The "outside enemy" personified by
Osama bin Laden is "threatening America".

Pre-emptive war directed against "Islamic terrorists"
is required to defend the Homeland. Realities are turned
upside down. America is under attack.

In the wake of 9/11, the creation of this "outside enemy"
has served to obfuscate the real economic and strategic
objectives behind the war in the Middle East and Central
Asia. Waged on the grounds of self-defense, the pre-emptive
war is upheld as a "just war" with a humanitarian mandate.

As anti-war sentiment grows and the political legitimacy
the Bush Administration falters, doubts regarding the
existence of this illusive "outside enemy" must be
dispelled.

Counter-terrorism and war propaganda are intertwined. The
propaganda apparatus feeds disinformation into the news
chain. The terror warnings must appear to be "genuine". The
objective is to present the terror groups as "enemies
of America."

Ironically, Al Qaeda --the "outside enemy of America"
as well as the alleged architect of the 9/11 attacks--
is a creation of the CIA.

From the outset of the Soviet-Afghan war in the early
1980s, the US intelligence apparatus has supported the
formation of the "Islamic brigades". Propaganda purports to
erase the history of Al Qaeda, drown the truth and "kill
the evidence" on how this "outside enemy" was fabricated
and transformed into "Enemy Number One".

The US intelligence apparatus has created it own terrorist
organizations. And at the same time, it creates its own
terrorist warnings concerning the terrorist organizations
which it has itself created. Meanwhile, a cohesive
multibillion dollar counterterrorism program "to go after"
these terrorist organizations has been put in place.

Portrayed in stylized fashion by the Western media, Osama
bin Laden, supported by his various henchmen, constitutes
America's post-Cold war bogeyman, who "threatens Western
democracy". The alleged threat of "Islamic terrorists",
permeates the entire US national security doctrine. Its
purpose is to justify wars of aggression in the Middle
East, while establishing within America, the contours of
the Homeland Security State.

Historical Background

What are the historical origins of Al Qaeda? Who is Osama
bin Laden?

The alleged mastermind behind the 9/11 terrorists attacks,
Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, was recruited during the
Soviet-Afghan war, "ironically under the auspices of the
CIA, to fight Soviet invaders".(Hugh Davies, "`Informers'
point the finger at bin Laden; Washington on alert for
suicide bombers." The Daily Telegraph, London, 24 August
1998).

In 1979 the largest covert operation in the history of
the CIA was launched in Afghanistan:

"With the active encouragement of the CIA and Pakistan's
ISI, who wanted to turn the Afghan Jihad into a global
war waged by all Muslim states against the Soviet Union,
some 35,000 Muslim radicals from 40 Islamic countries
joined Afghanistan's fight between 1982 and 1992. Tens
of thousands more came to study in Pakistani madrasahs.
Eventually, more than 100,000 foreign Muslim radicals were
directly influenced by the Afghan jihad." (Ahmed Rashid,
"The Taliban: Exporting Extremism", Foreign Affairs,
November-December 1999).

This project of the US intelligence apparatus was conducted
with the active support of Pakistan's Inter Services
Intelligence (ISI), which was entrusted in channelling
covert military aid to the Islamic brigades and financing,
in liason with the CIA, the madrassahs and Mujahideen
training camps.

U.S. government support to the Mujahideen was presented
to world public opinion as a "necessary response" to the
1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in support of the
pro-Communist government of Babrak Kamal.

The CIA's military-intelligence operation in Afghanistan,
which consisted in creating the "Islamic brigades",
was launched prior rather than in response to the entry
of Soviet troops into Afghanistan. In fact, Washington's
intent was to deliberately trigger a civil war, which has
lasted for more than 25 years ...

A "Militant Islamic Network" was created by the CIA.
The "Islamic Jihad" (or holy war against the Soviets)
became an integral part of the CIA's intelligence ploy. It
was supported by the United States and Saudi Arabia, with
a significant part of the funding generated from the Golden
Crescent drug trade:

"In March 1985, President Reagan signed National Security
Decision Directive 166 " [which] authorize[d] stepped-up
covert military aid to the Mujahideen, and it made clear
that the secret Afghan war had a new goal: to defeat Soviet
troops in Afghanistan through covert action and encourage
a Soviet withdrawal.

The new covert U.S. assistance began with a dramatic
increase in arms supplies -- a steady rise to 65,000
tons annually by 1987 " as well as a "ceaseless stream"
of CIA and Pentagon specialists who travelled to the
secret headquarters of Pakistan's ISI on the main road near
Rawalpindi, Pakistan. There, the CIA specialists met with
Pakistani intelligence officers to help plan operations
for the Afghan rebels."(Steve Coll, The Washington Post,
July 19, 1992.) ...

The Central Intelligence Agency using Pakistan's ISI as a
go-between played a key role in training the Mujahideen. In
turn, the CIA-sponsored guerrilla training was integrated
with the teachings of Islam. The madrasahs were set up
by Wahabi fundamentalists financed out of Saudi Arabia:
"[I]t was the government of the United States who supported
Pakistani dictator General Zia-ul Haq in creating thousands
of religious schools, from which the germs of the Taliban
emerged."(Revolutionary Association of the Women of
Afghanistan (RAWA), "RAWA Statement on the Terrorist
Attacks in the U.S.", Centre for Research on Globalisation
(CRG),

CIA covert support to the "Islamic Jihad" operated
indirectly through the Pakistani ISI -- i.e. the CIA did
not channel its support directly to the Mujahideen. For
these covert operations to be "successful", Washington
was careful not to reveal the ultimate objective of the
"Jihad", which consisted not only in destabilising the
secular (pro-Soviet) government in Afghanistan, but also
destroying the Soviet Union ...

The history of the drug trade in Central Asia is intimately
related to the CIA's covert operations. Prior to the
Soviet-Afghan war, opium production in Afghanistan and
Pakistan was directed to small regional markets. There was
no local production of heroin. (Alfred McCoy, Drug Fallout:
the CIA's Forty Year Complicity in the Narcotics Trade. The
Progressive, 1 August 1997).

Researcher Alfred McCoy's study confirms that within two
years of the onslaught of the CIA operation in Afghanistan,
"the Pakistan-Afghanistan borderlands became the world's
top heroin producer, supplying 60 per cent of U.S. demand."
(Ibid)

"CIA assets again controlled this heroin trade. As
the Mujahideen guerrillas seized territory inside
Afghanistan, they ordered peasants to plant opium as
a revolutionary tax. Across the border in Pakistan,
Afghan leaders and local syndicates under the protection
of Pakistan Intelligence operated hundreds of heroin
laboratories. During this decade of wide-open drug-dealing,
the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency in Islamabad failed to
instigate major seizures or arrests. " (Ibid)

Afghanistan is a strategic hub in Central Asia, bordering
on China's Western frontier and on the former Soviet
Union. While it constitutes a land bridge for the
oil and gas pipeline corridors linking the Caspian sea
basin to the Arabian sea, it is also strategic for its
opium production, which today, according to UN sources,
supplies more than 90 % of the World's heroin market,
representing multi-billion dollar revenues for business
syndicates, financial institutions, intelligence agencies
and organized crime. (See Michel Chossudovsky, America's
"War on Terrorism, Global Research, 2005, Chapter XVI)

Protected by the CIA, a new surge in opium production
unfolded in the post cold War era. Since the October 2001
US invasion of Afghanistan, opium production has increased
33 fold since the US led invasion. The annual proceeds
of the Golden Crescent drug trade are estimated between
120 and 194 billion dollars (2006), representing more
than one third of the worldwide annual turnover of the
narcotics trade. (Michel Chossudovsky, Heroin is good for
Your Health, Occupation Forces Support Afghan Drug Trade,
Global Research, April 2007. see also Douglas Keh, Drug
Money in a Changing World, Technical document No. 4, 1998),
From the Soviet-Afghan War to the "War on Terrorism" ...

In the wake of the Cold War, the CIA continued to support
the Islamic brigades out of Pakistan. New undercover
initiatives were set in motion in the Middle East, Central
Asia, the Balkans and south East Asia.

In the immediate wake of the Cold War, Pakistan's ISI
"served as a catalyst for the disintegration of the Soviet
Union and the emergence of six new Muslim republics
in Central Asia". (International Press Services, 22
August 1995). Meanwhile, Islamic missionaries of the
Wahabi sect from Saudi Arabia had established themselves
in the Muslim republics, as well as within the Russian
federation, encroaching upon the institutions of the
secular State. Despite its anti-American ideology, Islamic
fundamentalism was largely serving Washington's strategic
interests in the former Soviet Union, the Balkans and the
Middle East.

Following the withdrawal of Soviet troops in 1989, the
civil war in Afghanistan continued unabated. The Taliban
were being supported by the Pakistani Deobandis and their
political party, the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Islam (JUI). In
1993, the JUI entered Pakistan's government coalition
of Prime Minister Benazzir Bhutto. Ties between the JUI,
the Army and the ISI were established.

In 1996, with the downfall of the Hezb-I-Islami Hektmatyar
government in Kabul, the Taliban not only instated a
hardline Islamic government, they also "handed control
of training camps in Afghanistan over to JUI factions
"". (Ahmed Rashid, "The Taliban: Exporting Extremism",
Foreign Affairs, November - December, 1999, p. 22.)

The JUI, with the support of the Saudi Wahabi movement,
played a key role in recruiting volunteers to fight in
the Balkans and the former Soviet Union. (Ibid) Jane
Defence Weekly confirms, that "half of Taliban manpower
and equipment originate[d] in Pakistan under the ISI."

Backed by Pakistan's military intelligence, which in
turn was controlled by the CIA, the Taliban Islamic State
largely served US geopolitical interests. No doubt this
explains why Washington had closed its eyes on the reign
of terror imposed by the Taliban in 1996, including the
blatant derogation of women's rights, the closing down of
schools for girls, the dismissal of women employees from
government offices and the enforcement of "the Sharia laws
of punishment". (K. Subrahmanyam, "Pakistan is Pursuing
Asian Goals", India Abroad, 3 November 1995.)

The Golden Crescent drug trade was also being used to
finance and equip the Bosnian Muslim Army (starting in the
early 1990s) and the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). In fact,
at the time of the September 11 attacks, CIA-sponsored
Mujahideen mercenaries were fighting within the ranks of
KLA-NLA terrorists in their assaults into Macedonia ...

Ironically, the US Administration's undercover
military-intelligence operations in Bosnia, which consisted
in promoting the formation of "Islamic brigades", have
been fully documented by the Republican Party. A lengthy
Congressional report by the Senate Republican Party
Committee (RPC) published in 1997, largely confirms the
International Media Corporation report quoted above. The
RPC Congressional report accuses the Clinton administration
of having "helped turn Bosnia into a militant Islamic
base" leading to the recruitment through the so-called
"Militant Islamic Network," of thousands of Mujahideen
from the Muslim world ...

In other words, the Republican Party Committee report
confirms unequivocally the complicity of the Clinton
Administration with several Islamic fundamentalist
organisations including Al Qaeda. The Republicans wanted
at the time to undermine the Clinton Administration ...

The "Bosnian pattern" described in the 1997 Congressional
RPC report was replicated in Kosovo. With the complicity of
NATO and the US State Department, Mujahideen mercenaries
from the Middle East and Central Asia were recruited to
fight in the ranks of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA)
in 1998-99, largely supporting NATO's war effort.

Confirmed by British military sources, the task of arming
and training of the KLA had been entrusted in 1998 to
the US Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) and Britain's
Secret Intelligence Services MI6, together with "former
and serving members of 22 SAS [Britain's 22nd Special Air
Services Regiment], as well as three British and American
private security companies". (The Scotsman, Edinburgh,
29 August 1999).

The US DIA approached MI6 to arrange a training programme
for the KLA, said a senior British military source.
`MI6 then sub-contracted the operation to two British
security companies, who in turn approached a number of
former members of the (22 SAS) regiment. Lists were then
drawn up of weapons and equipment needed by the KLA.'
While these covert operations were continuing, serving
members of 22 SAS Regiment, mostly from the unit's
D Squadron, were first deployed in Kosovo before the
beginning of the bombing campaign in March. (Truth in
Media, "Kosovo in Crisis", Phoenix, Arizona,

While British SAS Special Forces in bases in Northern
Albania were training the KLA, military instructors from
Turkey and Afghanistan financed by the "Islamic jihad" were
collaborating in training the KLA in guerilla and diversion
tactics.:(The Sunday Times, London, 29 November 1998).

"Bin Laden had visited Albania himself. He was one of
several fundamentalist groups that had sent units to fight
in Kosovo, ... Bin Laden is believed to have established an
operation in Albania in 1994 ... Albanian sources say Sali
Berisha, who was then president, had links with some groups
that later proved to be extreme fundamentalists." (Ibid)

Congressional Testimonies on KLA-Al Qaeda links

In the mid-1990s, the CIA and Germany's Secret Service,
the BND, joined hands in providing covert support to the
Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). In turn, the latter was
receiving support from Al Qaeda.

According to Frank Ciluffo of the Globalized Organised
Crime Program, in a December 2000 testimony to the House
of Representatives Judicial Committee:

"What was largely hidden from public view was the fact
that the KLA raise part of their funds from the sale
of narcotics. Albania and Kosovo lie at the heart of
the "Balkan Route" that links the "Golden Crescent"
of Afghanistan and Pakistan to the drug markets of
Europe. This route is worth an estimated $400 billion
a year and handles 80 percent of heroin destined for
Europe." (U.S. Congress, Testimony of Frank J. Cilluffo,
Deputy Director of the Global Organized Crime Program,
to the House Judiciary Committee, Washington DC, 13
December 2000).

According to Ralf Mutschke of Interpol's Criminal
Intelligence division also in a testimony to the House
Judicial Committee:

"The U.S. State Department listed the KLA as a terrorist
organization, indicating that it was financing its
operations with money from the international heroin trade
and loans from Islamic countries and individuals, among
them allegedly Usama bin Laden" ...

The Congressional documents also confirm that members
of the Senate and the House knew the relationship of the
Administration to international terrorism. To quote the
statement of Rep. John Kasich of the House Armed Services
Committee: "We connected ourselves [in 1998-99] with
the KLA, which was the staging point for bin Laden..."
(U.S. Congress, Transcripts of the House Armed Services
Committee, Washington, DC, 5 October 1999,)

In the wake of the tragic events of September 11, [2001]
Republicans and Democrats in unison have given their full
support to the President to "wage war on Osama".

In 1999, Senator Jo Lieberman had stated authoritatively
that "Fighting for the KLA is fighting for human rights
and American values." In the hours following the October
7 missile attacks on Afghanistan, the same Jo Lieberman
called for punitive air strikes against Iraq: "We're in
a war against terrorism... We can't stop with bin Laden
and the Taliban."

Yet Senator Jo Lieberman, as member of the Armed Services
Committee of the Senate had access to all the Congressional
documents pertaining to "KLA-Osama" links. In making this
statement, he was fully aware that that agencies of the US
government as well as NATO were supporting international
terrorism ...

Washington's Hidden Agenda

U.S. foreign policy is not geared towards curbing the
tide of Islamic fundamentalism. In fact, it is quite the
opposite. The significant development of "radical Islam",
in the wake of the Cold War in the former Soviet Union
and the Middle East is consistent with Washington's
hidden agenda. The latter consists in sustaining rather
than combating international terrorism, with a view
to destabilizing national societies and preventing the
articulation of genuine secular social movements directed
against the American Empire.

Washington continues to support -- through CIA covert
operations -- the development of Islamic fundamentalism,
throughout the Middle East, in the former Soviet Union as
well in China and India.

Throughout the developing world, the growth of sectarian,
fundamentalist and other such organizations tends to
serve U.S. interests. These various organizations and
armed insurgents have been developed, particularly in
countries where state institutions have collapsed under
the brunt of the IMF [International Monetary Fund] -
sponsored economic reforms.

These fundamentalist organizations contribute by
destroying and displacing secular institutions. Islamic
fundamentalism creates social and ethnic divisions. It
undermines the capacity of people to organize against the
American Empire. These organizations or movements, such
as the Taliban, often foment "opposition to Uncle Sam"
in a way which does not constitute any real threat to
America's broader geopolitical and economic interests.

Erasing the History of Al Qaeda

Since September 2001, this history of Al Qaeda has largely
been erased. The links of successive US administrations
to the "Islamic terror network" is rarely mentioned.

A major war in the Middle East and Central Asia, supposedly
"against international terrorism" was launched in October
2001 by a government which had been harboring international
terrorism as part of its foreign policy agenda. In other
words, the main justification for waging war on Afghanistan
and Iraq has been totally fabricated. The American people
have been deliberately and consciously misled by their
government.

This decision to mislead the American people was taken on
September 11, 2001 barely a few hours after the terrorist
attacks on the World Trade Centre. Without supporting
evidence, Osama had already been tagged as the "prime
suspect". Two days later on Thursday the 13th of September
-- while the FBI investigation had barely commenced --
President Bush pledged to "lead the world to victory".

While the CIA tacitly acknowledges that Al Qaeda was an
"intelligence asset" during the Cold War, the relationship
is said to "go way back" to a bygone era.

Most post-September 11 news reports tend to consider
that these Al Qaeda -CIA links belong to the "bygone era"
of the Soviet-Afghan war. They are invariably viewed as
irrelevant to an understanding of 9/11 and the "Global
War on Terrorism". Yet barely a few months before 9/11,
there was evidence of active collaboration between members
of the US military and Al Qaeda operatives in the civil
war in Macedonia ...

The CIA never severed its ties to the "Islamic Militant
Network". There is ample evidence that Al Qaeda remains
a US sponsored intelligence asset. [Did the U. S. pay
terrorists to blow up the Golden Mosque in Iraq in a
classic example of 'divide et impera'?]

Al Qaeda is presented as the architect of 9/11 without
ever mentioning its historical links to the CIA and
Pakistan's ISI.

While Al Qaeda remains firmly under the control of the
US intelligence apparatus, the US administration has
repeatedly intimated that this "outside enemy" will strike
again, that a "second 9/11' will occur somewhere in America
or in the western World ...

The September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center
and the Pentagon were used to galvanize public support
for the invasion of Afghanistan, which took place barely
four weeks later. Without supporting evidence, Al Qaeda,
which was allegedly supported by the Taliban government,
was held responsible for the 911 attacks.

The planning of a major theater war had been ongoing well
before 9/11. Whereas the US military was already in an
"advanced state of readiness", well at in advance of the
9/11 attacks, the decision to go to war with Afghanistan
was taken on the evening of September 11 and was formally
announced the following morning ...

Following the July 2005 London bombings, Vice President
Dick Cheney was reported to have instructed USSTRATCOM to
draw up a contingency plan "to be employed in response to
another 9/11-type terrorist attack on the United States".
Implied in the contingency plan is the certainty that Iran
would be behind a Second 9/11.

This "contingency plan" used the pretext of a "Second
9/11", which had not yet happened, to prepare for a
major military operation against Iran, while pressure was
also exerted on Tehran in relation to its (non-existent)
nuclear weapons program.

What is diabolical in this decision of the US Vice
President is that the justification presented by Cheney to
wage war on Iran rested on Iran's alleged involvement in
a hypothetical terrorist attack on America, which had not
yet occurred: The plan includes a large-scale air assault
on Iran employing both conventional and tactical nuclear
weapons ...

It is worth noting that one does not plan a war in three
weeks: the bombing and invasion of Afghanistan had been
planned well in advance of 9/11. As Michael Keefer points
out in an incisive review article:

"At a deeper level, it implies that "9/11-type terrorist
attacks" are recognized in Cheney's office and the
Pentagon as appropriate means of legitimizing wars of
aggression against any country selected for that treatment
by the regime and its corporate propaganda-amplification
system.... (Michael Keefer, Petrodollars and Nuclear
Weapons Proliferation: Understanding the Planned Assault
on Iran, Global Research, February 10, 2006) ...

Without 911, the war criminals in high office do not have
a leg to stand on. The entire national security construct
collapses like a deck of cards.''